The United States Department of Justice has charged three senior employees of Telekom Malaysia over an alleged scheme to misappropriate more than $20 million from the Malaysian state telecommunications company.
According to the DOJ, Mohd Hafiz Lockman, Mohd Yuzaimi Yusof and Khanh Thuong Nguyen, who were senior executives at Telekom Malaysia’s US subsidiary, allegedly used forged records, false statements and fraudulent transactions to siphon company funds between July 2020 and February 2026.
The accused have been charged with wire fraud conspiracy, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
Mohd Hafiz was arrested at San Francisco International Airport, while the other two defendants surrendered before authorities last month.
“These three individuals are alleged to have conducted a deliberate and calculated embezzlement scheme, falsifying corporate records for their own financial benefit,” FBI Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle Jr. said in a statement.
According to the indictment, the executives allegedly diverted millions of dollars from Telekom Malaysia into bank accounts under their control through inflated invoices, fake expense reimbursements and manipulated contracts.
In one instance cited by the DOJ, Telekom Malaysia was reportedly asked to approve the sale of eight terabytes of network capacity to a US multinational company for $54 million, despite only six terabytes actually being purchased. Authorities alleged that the excess capacity was later sold to other firms through a sham entity, with proceeds diverted by the accused.
The DOJ also alleged that the trio inflated cable procurement costs and redirected nearly $2.9 million into controlled accounts. They are additionally accused of impersonating employees and interns to capture salary payments and, in one case, allegedly used an AI-assisted impersonator to deceive human resources personnel.
The DOJ said it declined to bring charges against Telekom Malaysia itself after the company voluntarily disclosed the misconduct and agreed to cooperate with investigators.
Telekom Malaysia had not issued an immediate response to the allegations at the time of reporting.